Leeds United AFC

Born out of inauspicious beginnings, Leeds United was created in 1919 to replace the former Leeds City club which had been forcibly disbanded by the Football League due to illegal payments having been made to players during WWI. United didn't immediately take City's place - the former having been ejected from division 2 after 8 games and replaced by Port Vale who inherited their record - instead they were admitted to division 2 in time for season 1920-21. After finding their feet, Leeds United won promotion to the first division in 1924.

However, they could not do enough to maintain their place and were soon relegated again. This was to be a constant theme for the next 35 years until the appointment of Don Revie in 1961. Under Revie's stewardship the club won two League Championships, one FA Cup, a League Cup, two Inter City Fairs Cups and were beaten finalists in the 1973 European Cup Winners Cup Final versus AC Milan. When Revie left in 1974, Brian Clough succeeded him for a short time, but was replaced by Jimmy Armfield who took Revie's ageing team all the way to the European Cup Final versus Bayern Munich in Paris but the team was defeated 2-0 despite being by far the better team. Events off the pitch that night have since proved the main talking point, but certainly, doubt surrounds the conduct of the referee that evening.

After another fallow period, pragmatic manager Howard Wilkinson masterminded yet another Leeds escape from the second tier of English football in 1989-90. Two seasons later, Wilkinson became the last Englishman, to date, to manage a top tier winning team as Leeds won the First Division title in 1991-92 and thus became the last winners of the Football League before the advent of the FA Premier League.